Bowling-alley ball return



Jim; 19,1926. 1,570,550

J. W. BISHOP BQWLINQ ALLEY BALL RETURN Filed Sept. 29, 1924 latented' J an. 19, 1926,

UNITED STATES Mam: orrice.

JOSEPH BISHOP, OF MUSKEGON, MIGHZGAN, ASSIGNOE TO THE BRUNSWICK- BALKE-COLLENDEE COMLPANY, F WILMINGTON, DELAVIABE, A CORPORATION 01E DELAWARE.

BOWLING-ALLEY BALL RETURN.

Application filed September 29, 1924. Serial No. 740,539.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH W. BISHOP, a citizen of the United States, residing at Muskegon, in the county of Muskegon and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bowling- Alley Ball Returns, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates generally to bowl ing alleys and more particularly to the ball return.

ers fingers.

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In commercial practice it has been customary heretofore to provide a straight -re-' turn for the ball extending from the alley pit to a curved end at or about the back of the approach to the alley over which the ball is caused to travel to and forward on a receiving track elevated above the return track. As the ball travels up the curve from the return track to the receiving track it is retarded so that it will come to rest upon the receiving trackwhich provides storage space for a number of balls.

Many players desire to play exclusively with a single ball, which may be owned by the player or may belong to the alley equipment, and therefore it is highly desirable to return this ball to the player as quickly as possible so that he may, whenever necessary, throw his second ball with as little delay as possible. i

When the player delivers his first ball he usually remains at or about the foul line Watching the ball travel down the alley to the pins, and it is desirable to return the ball direct to him while facing the pins without requiring him to look back for the ball to approach him from the rear of the alley. The players attention is primarily directed to the pins and it may happen, while he is looking forward and at the same time picking up a ball from the receiving track, that another ball 'willtravel up the curve to the receivingtr'ack and hit the ball the player is picking up, or the line ofballs, on the receiving track and injure the play- This is not an infrequent occurrence and since the player usually picks up the ball with his playing hand, an injury to the fingers, even though it may not he often 1 fficient to spoil the pla ers game, 'i i f I It is not unknown to provide a straight retur'n'of the ball from the pit to rest upon so that it will come to rest quietly without banging the balls on the receiving track. But the return first described, with the curved section connecting the rear ends of the return and-receiving tracks, is the kind most generallyused commercially; the other kind has been used but'is not popular because no satisfactory means have heretofore been provided for properly retarding the ball. It will be noted that the ball travels along the return at a high rate of speed, the effort being to return the ball as quickly as possible, and an eflioient retardingmeans is required to provide sufficient retardation so that the ball will travel slowly on the receiving track with just sufficient momentum to bring it to'rest in position next to the ball ahead of it. It is also important, of course. not to retard the ball too much for in that case it would travel back along the return way and have to be recovered by a player or attendant. Balls varying somewhat in size and in weight, and sometimes balls of difierent sizes and different weights are used by the players on a single alley, so that the retarding means must be of such a character that it will operate efficiently, without special adjustment, with balls of varying sizes and weights. I I

With both kinds of return tracks the liability of injury to the players fingers is ever present and this is particularly true because often the finger holes in the balls on the receiving track are not disposed in a proper position to be engaged by the fingers and the player using one or both hands will turn theball on the receiving track until he can engage his fingers with the holes. While by the ball, while travelling forward, is delivered upon an elevated receiving track at a proper reduction in speed to insure safe delivery, and at a rate of speed sufficient only for such delivery.

A further object of the invention is to. provide a single means which will both de-. flect' the ball to the receiving track as it reaches the level of said track and at the same time will check the velocity of the ball so that it will travel to the receiving track at a proper speed for delivery only.

And a still further object of the invention is to provide a curved track section connecting the rear end of a return ti'a'ckivitli the forward end of an elevated receiving track and yielding means located adjacent the upper end of the curved track for changing the direction of travel of the ball and reducing its velocity as the ball reaches the top of the curved track so that the ball will be delivered to and travel on the receiving track at a greatly reduced velocity.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown a selected embodiment of my invention which is broadly generic to this embodi merit as well as to the eirrbodirnent disclosed and claimed in my co-pending application filed January 9, 1924, Serial No. 685,112, both of which have been found to be entirely satisfactory in actual use;

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. 1 is aside elevation of so much of a bowling alley ball return as is necessary for illustrating my invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view on the line 2'2 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 is a view taken on the line: 3--3 of Fig. 2.

The ball return 1 of some approved constructio'n ei'rtends from the alley pit at the pin end of the alley and connects with a dished or concaved upwardly curved section 2" which in turn connects with a receiving track 3 elevated coi'iven'ie'ntly above the floor 4L and provided with a suitable stop 5; The co'ni'ie'ction between the return ti'a'ck'and the lower end of the curved section provides a smooth continuation of the return track gradually merging into an upward curve. The connection of the curved section with the receiving track isa juncture point 6 which formed by curving upwardly the eoni'iectin'g end of the receiving track. A yielding retarder and deflector is located opposite this point to stop the upward'move' nient m the ball as it travels to the' top of the curve'dtrack and to change the direction of travel of the ball to the receiving track at a reduced rate'of speed.

The retarding and deflecting means comprises, in the convenient and simple construction illustrated, a pair of brackets 7 which are secured to the floor andhave short ertical port-ions 8 connecting with rounded portions 9 to permit passage of the ball and terminating in rearwardly bent arms 10. The brackets are located on opposite sides of the curved track adjacent the connection with the return track and are fastened to the rails 11 of the curved section and supported in rigid position. Rollers 12 are revolubly mounted in the bent arms of the brackets, one roller at'the bend and the other roller at the extreme ends of the arms, and a yielding buffer strap 13 is trained around said rollers and has its ends connected by a turnbuckle 14. A continuous surface of the buffer strap is disposed in an angular position inopposite relation to the upper end of the curved section of the track and the turnbuckle is located on the opposite sides of the rollers and is adapted to be adjusted to tension the buffer sti'ap as desired.

In practice the ball travels along the return track and up the curved track at a relatively high rate of speed because it is desired to return the ball to the player as quicklyas possible. As the ball reaches the upper end of the curved section of-the track; it comes in contact with the deflecting and retardii'lg buffer strap 13 which operates to check the upward movement of the ball and to change its direction of travel onto the receiving track so that the returning ball is delivered to the receiving track at a greatly reduced rate of speed and" only sufiicient to deliver the ball in its proper line-up on the receiving track. The buffer acts not only as a retarding means, but practically to stop the upward movement of the ball; it checks the ball in its upward travel for an instan't and then deflects it to a horizontal travel on the receiving track. To insure a movement of the ball on the receiving track and to prevent any possibility of balls on the receiving track rolling therefrom to the curved track; I provide theelevated juncture point of the receiving track with the curved track. The turnbuckle provides a simple and convenient means for adjusting the tension of the strap and the rollers prevent wear on the strap from any movement thereof incident to adjustment or action of the ball thereon. These rollers provide a rocking bearing for the strap to relieveit from the frictional wear which would result from the use of fixed bearings and also to assist the strap in functioning in the manner intended.

My invention provides a simple means for returning the ball to the player with a for ward travel only and delivering it to the player slowly so that the player may receive the ball as it is delivered upon the receiving track and without danger o'finjury to his fingers. The delivery of a ball to the player while traveling in a forward direction from the pit is desirable because it does not require the player to divert his attention from the pit end of the alley to which his attention is mostly directed,- and also because it enables the player to receive the ball as it approaches him' while standing naturally in position alongside the receiving track and without requiring him to twist around to an unnatural position or to turn his back to the pit end of the alley. The invention also insures quick delivery of the ball to the player with a retardation at the delivery end of the return to a rate of speed which merely insures delivery and which can be regulated by tensioning the buffer strap.

The invention is simple in construction, it can be easily applied to old alleys as well as new alleys, and it requires no special skill for installation.

I am aware that changes in the form, construction and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and without sacrificing the advantages of the invention and I reserve the right to embody it in the form illustrated in this or in my co-pending application and to make all such changes as fairly fall within the scope of the following claims I claim 1. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track in alignment with the return track, an upwardly curved track intermediate of the return track and the receiving track and connecting the adjacent ends thereof, and means adjacent said curved track for changing the direction of travel of the ball when it reaches the top of the curvedtrack.

2. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving and storage track in alignment with the return track and spaced longitudinally therefrom, a longitudinally dished or concaved c0nnecting track leading upwardly from the return track to the receivingv track, and a combined deflector and retarding bufi'er disposed in cooperative relation with the juncture of the dished connecting track and the storage track and in the path of a ball traveling upwardly along the connecting track to check the ball in its upward traveland deflect 'it to the receiving-track.

3. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track in alignment with the return track, an upwardly curved track intermediate of the return track and the receiving track and connecting the adjacent ends thereof, the curved track forming a. terminal end for the return track and forming a point at its juncture with the receiving track, and a retarding buffer located opposite said point.

4. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track, an upwardly curved track connecting the adjacent ends of the return track and the receiving track, and resilient means disopposite to th j ncture 9f the curved track withthe receiving track for retarding the travel of the ball and for changing its upward direction of travel on the curved track to rearward direction-of travel on the receiving track. 1

5. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track, an upwardly curved track intermediate of the return track and the receiving track and connecting the adjacent ends thereof, the curved track forming a point at its juncture with the receiving track, and a resilient bufl'er arranged in an'inclined position opposite said point to retard the travel of the ball at the point.

6. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track, a curved track intermediate the return track and the receiving track and connecting the adjacent ends thereof, and a single means adjacent said curved track to check the speed of the ball received from said return track and to deflect it to said receiving track. I j

7. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track, an upwardly curved track connecting the adjacent ends of said return track and receiving track, the end of said receiving track being curved upwardly to form a point juncture with the end of said curved track, and means for deflecting a ball travelling along said curved track on to said receiving track.

8. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track, a curved track connecting the adjacent ends of said return track and receiving track, means located opposite the upper end of the curved track for retarding and deflecting a ball and comprising a pair of arms, rollers mounted to revolve in said arms, a strap trained over said rollers, and means for tensioning the strap.

9. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track, a curved track connecting the adjacent ends of said return track and receiving track, a support, a pair of rollers spaced apart and mounted to revolve in said support, and a bufier strap trained over said rollers and located opposite the upper end of the curved track.

10. A bowling alley ball return comprising a return track, an elevated receiving track, a curved track connecting the adjacent ends of said return track and receiving track, a pair of brackets mounted adjacent the curved track, rearwardly bent arms on said brackets, and means mounted on said arms for checking the speed of the ball as it travels to the top of the curved track and fordeflecting it to travel on the receiving track. V

11. A bowling alley ball return compris ing a return track, an elevated receiving track, e curved. track connecting the adja cent ends of the return track and the receiving track, a pair of brackets mounted edjacent the curved track and comprising arms bent rearwardly, a roller mounted to revolve at the bend in said arms and another roller mounted to revolve at the ends of saiderms, and abufier strap trained around said rollers and disposed in an inclined position 10 opposite the upper end of the curved track to check the speed of the ball and to deflect it to travel on to the receiving track.

JOSEPH W. BISHOP. 

